Methods exist to manufacture cellular polymer structures. For instance, photolithography may be used in the microfabrication of thin two-dimensional patterns on a thin film or a substrate. Related art photolithography techniques involve using light to transfer a geometric pattern from a photomask to a light-sensitive chemical photoresist on the substrate. However, such related art photolithography techniques are limited to creating relatively thin structures (e.g., nanometer scale patterns for microelectronics) and are unsuitable for developing thicker structures. Related art 3D-printing techniques permit manufacturing thicker structures, but require long print times and have limited sizes in their production beds. Other related art methods for manufacturing polymer structures include the cumbersome and time-consuming tasks of laminating sheets with targeted bonding, cutting, and then expansion of the material.
Methods also exist to manufacture cellular ceramic structures. Related art methods include slurry or CVD coating of polymer foams and foaming of preceramic polymers. However, these related art methods have limited control over cell size and spacing uniformity. Additionally, these related art methods may require many processing tasks to create a substrate and convert it to ceramic. Additionally, to maintain the ceramic shape, high temperature molds must be used during the firing process.
Related art methods to create ceramic foams from preceramic polymers result in a ceramic with bulk porosity and microporosity. Additionally, related art ceramic foams have a random distribution of sizes within the architecture.